Pantone's 2017 Color of the Year Is Greenery

The reign of 2016's colors of the year, Rose Quartz and Serenity, has officially come to an end. On Thursday, Pantone announced its top color for 2017. Behold, Greenery, "a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore, and renew."

If perhaps Pantone's winning hue isn't quite so surprising, that's because the color forecasters hinted at Greenery's dominance in the coming year during Fashion Week this past September. The shade was named as one of the most prevalent on runways featuring spring trends—appropriate, considering the fact that Pantone ascribes Greenery's popularity to a return to nature in response to our immersion in current events, urban life, and contemporary technologies

"We know what kind of world we are living in: one that is very stressful and very tense," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, in The New York Times. "This is the color of hopefulness, and of our connection to nature. It speaks to what we call the "re" words: regenerate, refresh, revitalize, renew. Every spring we enter a new cycle and new shoots come from the ground. It is something life affirming to look forward to."

The authority on color even suggests that the presidential election season played a role in the selection of the green hue. Greenery, Eiseman says on Pantone's website, provides reassurance during "a tumultuous social and political environment."

The new Color of the Year is chosen based on Pantone's own cultural litmus test of the day, in addition to an examination of colors commonly employed across varying fields and industries. And so it seems the color experts are trying to say that in these turbulent times, it's not easy being green—but let's all give it a shot in 2017 and use this hue to decorate and paint with the verdant color.